GB1575086A - Sun visor assembly for vehicles - Google Patents

Description

PATENT SPECIFICATION

( 11) by ( 21) Application No 46000/77 ( 22) Filed 4 Nov 1977 00 ( 31) Convention Application No.

c 2703 447 ( 32) Filed 28 Jan 1977 in A) ( 33) Fed Rep of Germany (DE) ( 44) Complete Specification published 17 Sept 1980 t ( 51) INT CL 3 B 6 OJ 3/02 ( 52) Index at acceptance B 7 J 63 ( 54) A SUN VISOR ASSEMBLY FOR VEHICLES ( 71) We, GEBRUDER HAPPICH G m b H, a German Body Corporate, of Neuenteich 62/76, 56 Wuppertal-Elberfeld, German Federal Republic, do hereby declare the invention for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement:-

This invention relates to a sun visor assembly for a vehicle, comprising a housing for mounting in the vehicle and containing a bearing for a pivot shaft attached to one end region of the upper longitudinal edge of the sun visor, an abutment member disposed at the other end region of the upper longitudinal edge of the sun visor, an abutment housing for mounting in the vehicle to which the abutment member is releasably connectible, and a mirror provided with a light source connectible to the vehicle electric system.

For the purpose of this specification a pivot shaft and bearing are defined as a shaft carried in a bearing so mounted that the shaft rotates about a vertical axis.

It has long been known to provide sun visors with mirrors Sun visors provided with mirrors in the aforementioned manner are usually placed on the passenger side of the vehicle In order to use the mirror during darkness, it has been proposed to provide it with a light source There is considerable difficulty in wiring the light source, since the sun visor is usually so mounted that it can either be swung up or down, or pivoted to the side of the vehicle The simplest solution would be to lay the wires over the exterior of the sun visor body, but this is objectionable both for aesthetic reasons and because the wires may easily be torn off when the vehicle is cleaned For this reason, in the case of a known sun visor, it has been proposed to bore through the sun visor shaft and convey the supply lead through the bore up to the light source This known method has the advantage of concealing the leads inside the sun visor shaft and body, but the resulting shaft is very expensive to manu 50 facture and to install.

An aim of the present invention is to provide a sun visor with an illuminated mirror, without expensive wiring for the light source 55 To this end, starting from a sun visor of the initially-mentioned kind, there is provided a sun visor assembly for a vehicle, comprising a housing for mounting in the vehicle and containing a bearing for a 60 pivot shaft attached to one end region of the upper longitudinal edge of the sun visor, an abutment member disposed at the other end region of the upper longitudinal edge of the sun visor, an abutment housing 65 for mounting in the vehicle to which the abutment member is releasably connectible, and a mirror provided with a light source connectible to the vehicle electric system, in which the abutment housing contains at 70 least one contact element connectible to a supply lead from the vehicle electrical system and makes contact with the abutment member which is connected to a lead for the light source 75 The advantage of this arrangement is, firstly, that the power supply is via the abutment housing and is therefore concealed, simple and long-lasting The abutment member, which can be engaged in 80 the abutment housing, co-operates with the contact element in the abutment housing to form a plug-in contact, so that the power supply to the light source is ensured without the need for leads extending all the way 85 from the vehicle electrical system to the light source The lead from the abutment housing and the associated recess for the light source can be formed as an integrated component during manufacture of the sun 90 1 575 086 1 575086 visor Admittedly, the power supply to the light source is cut off when the sun visor is pivoted towards the side window, but the mirror does not have to be illuminated when the sun visor is in this position.

The earth connection can be provided in simple manner, via the sun visor pivot shaft, which can be connected to the vehicle body The sun visor pivot shaft can be made of solid metal in known manner, or alternatively it can be of plastics material injection moulded around a metal core In both cases, reliable connections are obtained.

According to a particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention, the abutment housing has two contact elements which are spa ced apart but are both in contact with the abutment member, which has insulation in the region betwen its contacts.

Consequently, both the positive and the earth contacts can be omitted from the abutment housing and connected to the light source via leads embedded in the sun visor body In this manner, even the sun visor shaft can be made of a plastics material.

According to another feature, the abutment housing has at least one plug-in aperture formed with grooves for retaining the contact element The upper part of the or each contact element is a contact prong to receive a contact tag, while the lower part is curved to receive a contact of the abutment member The resulting abutment housing is only slightly different from the conventional type, so that the additional cost is negligible The contact element is also easy and cheap to manufacture and install.

Advantageously, to provide for easy insertion of the abutment member and obtain an efficient contact, the abutment member is made of a plastics material having a cylindrical central portion with a reduced-diameter portion at each end, and the contacts are in the form of metal sleeves carried on the reduced-diameter portions, there being a helical spring so between the end of one of the reduceddiameter portions and one of the sleeves.

As a result, the abutment shaft can be simultaneously in contact with the positive and negative terminals and connected to SS the light source, e g a strip lamp Advantageously, both ends of the abutment member engage in contact elements in the form of round sockets connected to supply leads extending to the light source Of course, the light source is associated with a break contact, which advantageously can be actuated by lifting a hinged cover over the light source and mirror.

An important advantage of the invention is that the sun visor assembly does not have any loose wires which have to be carefully connected to the positive and/or negative lead of the vehicle electric system.

It is only necessary to connect the lead or leads of the vehicle electric system to the 70 contact element or elements, preferably by a plug and socket connection, before the abutment housing is secured to the vehicle.

One embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the 75 accompanying drawings, in whichFigure 1 is a sun visor assembly in elevation, Figure 2 is a section along line II-II in Figure 1; 80 Figure 3 is an exploded view showing individual components of the sun visor assembly; Figure 4 is a section along line IV-IV in Figure 3; 85 Figure 5 is a section along line V-V in Figure 3; and Figure 6 is a plan view of Figure 5.

Figure 1 shows a sun visor assembly for a vehicle, comprising a sun visor body 1 90 having an upper longitudinal edge 2, at one end region of which a pivot bearing, comprising a housing 3 and sun visor pivot shaft 4, is disposed At the other end region of edge 2, there is an abutment comprising 95 an abutment member 5 and an abutment housing 6 A mirror 7 associated with a lamp 8 is disposed on that side of the sunvisor body 1 which faces the passenger compartment of the vehicle when the sun 100 visor is in its operative position By means of a hinged cover 9, mirror 7 and lamp 8 can be covered and lamp 8 can simultaneously be switched off Mirror 7 is disposed in a housing frame 10 connected via 105 a sheet-metal holder 11 (Figure 2) to a metal-wire insert 12 of body 1.

Figure 3 is a detailed, exploded view showing the mirror and lighting system and the abutment region of the visor, 110 according to a preferred embodiment of the invention The abutment member 5 is mounted in a plastics bearing 13 which plugs into insert 12 Bearing 13 has aligned bores containing round metal sockets 14 115 Sockets 14 are connected to supply leads 15, the free ends of which bear pressed spring terminal tags 16 connected to the contacts 17 for the light source Leads 15 and contacts 16, 17 are permanently em 120 bedded in the material of the sun visor.

The mirror or housing frame 10 is embedded in foam in body 1 The housing frame 10 carries the hinged cover 9, which is covered in turn by a lamp glass 18 hay 125 ing contacts 19 between which lamp 8 is disposed Contacts 19 have tongues 20 which make contact with tongues 21 of contacts 17 when cover 9 is swung upwardly After cover 9 has been placed in 130 1 575 086 the corresponding recesses 22 in the housing frame 10, a matching frame 24 welded to a cover foil 23 is plugged into frame 10.

For this purpose, frame 24 has plug projections 25 and frame 10 has recesses 26.

In order to connect leads 15 to the vehicle electric system, the abutment housing 6 has two contacts 27, which are constructed as springs 28 at their bottoms and as prongs 29 at their tops Contacts 27 can be inserted from above into housing 6, and retained by detents 30 and grooves 31 in housing 6, spring terminal tags 32 can be pushed on to prongs 29 The terminal tags are clamped on to leads 33 of the vehicle electrical system and are disposed in concealed manner between the vehicle body and its internal lining After terminal tags 32 have been pushed on to prongs 29, the abutment housing is secured to the vehicle body, thus concealing all the electric connections.

Next, contacts 27 are connected to leads via the abutment member 5, which comprises a cylindrical central plastics part 34 with integrally formed reduced-diameter portions 35 fitting into metal sleeves 36, a helical spring 37 being disposed between the plastics part 34 and one metal sleeve 36 Because of its expansible construction, the abutment member 5 can easily be assembled and provides a reliable contact with the round metal sockets 14 and, via the sockets, with the lamp 8.

Claims (9)

WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1 A sun visor assembly for a vehicle, comprising a housing for mounting in the vehicle and containing a bearing for a pivot shaft attached to one end region of the upper longitudinal edge of the sun visor, an abutment member disposed at the other end region of the upper longitudinal edge of the sun visor, an abutment housing for mounting in the vehicle to which the abutment member is releasably connectible, and a mirror provided with a light source connectible to the vehicle electric system, in which the abutment housing contains at least one contact element connectible to a supply lead from the vehicle electrical system and makes contact with the abutment member which is connected to a lead for the light source.

2 An assembly according to claim 1, in which the earth return connection is via 55 the pivot shaft and a metal-wire insert in the sun visor.

3 An assembly according to claim 1 or claim 2, in which the pivot shaft is made of solid metal 60

4 An assembly according to claim 1 or claim 2, in which the pivot shaft is made of a plastics material injection moulded around a metal core.

An assembly according to any pre 65 ceding claim, in which the abutment housing is adapted to receive two electric contacts in spaced relationship and insulated from each other.

6 An assembly according to claim 5, 70 in which the abutment housing comprises apertures formed with grooves to retain the contact elements.

7 An assembly according to claim 6, in which each contact element comprises a 75 contact prong at its upper end to receive a spring contact tag and is curved at its lower end to receive a conatct of the abutment member.

8 An assembly according to claim 5, 80 or claim 6, or claim 7, in which the abutment member is made of a plastics material having a cylindrical central portion with a reduced-diameter portion at each end, and the contacts are in the form of metal 85 sleeves carried on the reduced-diameter portions, there being a helical spring between the one reduced-diameter portion and the associated sleeve.

9 An assembly according to any pre 90 ceding claim, in which both ends of the abutment member engage in contacts in the form of round sockets connected to supply leads extending to the light source.

A sun visor assembly for a vehicle, 95 constructed and arranged substantially as herein described, with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

BROMHEAD & CO, Chartered Patent Agents, Clifford's Inn, Fetter Lane, London EC 4 A INP.

Printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office by The Tweeddale Press Ltd, Berwick-upon-Tweed, 1980.

Published at the Patent Office, 25 Southampton Buildings, London, WC 2 A l AY, from which copies may be obtained.